Native American Myths

I believe this is a Native American story. There was a proud young woman who refused to marry any man that her mother introduced to her. The woman’s friends all got married, yet she was still single. Her mother became worried that she would never marry, that no man would ever be good enough for her. Then one day there came this terrible blackness, and the day became as black as night. As her mother was sleeping a handsome young man stepped into their tent, and there was such a powerful aura about him that the woman was mystified and deeply in love with him. The young man purposed to her and the woman agreed, and when her mother awoke she was delighted to hear the great news.

The next day things became as black as night yet again, and the man returned and escorted the woman to his village where she would be his wife. They arrived and were wed. The next morning her husband told her he had to go out hunting and would return. A moment after he left the tent a snake slithered inside. The snake crawled up to her and asked her to delouse it. She agreed, and with distaste she picked off various disgusting things from its back, from bugs to slugs. Afterwards the snake left. Later her husband returned, and told her that he had hoped he hadn’t scared her when he had come back inside as a snake. The woman lied and said she wasn’t bothered. The next day he went out hunting again, and again the snake returned and she deloused it. After it was gone the woman became curious about where she was living, and left the tent.

She left the village and explored around the area. She turned and saw a bunch of rocks, and upon each rock she saw a curled and dirty snake hissing at her. The woman now began to feel that she was in a very bad place. She turned and ran through the forest, unable to find her way home. Suddenly an old man appeared, and wove up his hands. “You’re in grave danger!” he warned her. “You’ve married one of five sorcerer brothers! The only way to free yourself from him is to go to the bed of the eldest brother, and under it you will find a bag of five hearts. Bring them back to me, and I can free you.”

The woman agreed, not wishing to stay in this dark realm one moment longer. She snuck into the bedroom of the eldest brother while he was sleeping, and under the bed found and fetched the bag. She left and ran back through the forest, carrying the bag of hearts. As she ran she suddenly found herself in a pond, and realized that she had been in this pond all along. The old man was above her and warmly offered her his hands. She took them, and he helped her out of the water.

I understand this myth to be symbolic for waiting for a higher plane in life, and then getting caught in its dangers. This world is sometimes called the ‘heart world’, as we are driven by our emotions here and must follow our hearts. As she runs with the bag of hearts she awakens in the pond -- the reality of the conscious world -- and a higher being helps pull her up into the world of the unconsciousness.

2.

There once was a young woman who was curious about the world and went out exploring. She came across a herd of buffalo, and they were quite enraged as they saw her -- as her people had been hunting them. The buffalos charged her and the woman ran to a ledge, sure that she would die. But then the buffalo leader ordered the others to cease. He told the woman that he would spare her life, under the condition that she would be his wife. The woman did not wish to die, and so she agreed.

Meanwhile her father, the chieftain, became worried for her and went in search of his daughter. When he found her he was horrified to see she was with the buffalos. Outraged, the buffalos charged him. The woman cried out for them to stop but they would not, and they pounded her father with their horns so hard that he was battered to tiny pieces. The woman cried for her dead father, and turned and ran away. Suddenly she saw a magpie, who showed off his beautiful feathers to her. The magpie told her that she could save her father if she did as instructed. The magpie told her to take his feathers and make a mat out of them, and to lay the mat over her dead father, and he would return to life.

The woman did as instructed, and placed the mat over the battered remnants of her chieftain father. She lifted up the mat a moment later and saw that he was mostly back to life. She laid the mat back down and waited a while longer. Then her father stood, and was quite alive again! The buffalos surrounded them. The chieftain begged the buffalo leader to let them return home. He agreed, under one stipulation: that when they hunted buffalo that they would do the same thing for them as the woman had done for her father, and bring them back to life. The chieftain agreed, and he and his daughter returned home. After this, whenever buffalo are hunted they are brought back to life.

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This myth tries to explain the worshipping and respect given to the buffalo spirits in return for their meat, that buffalos don’t simply vanish but are remembered as sacred animals.